The able Abels

An earlier post [17 Nov 2015] noted that Adam Pantle was unlikely to have been involved in sponsoring the Imle family immigrants or helping them once they arrived. The dates are all wrong and Adam had come from Grossbottwar, not Gundelbach. He would have been unlikely to have known the Imles in Germany. But there was an early Clark County resident from Gündelbach, Mathew Abel, who was born there on 22 Apr 1848, probably with the German name “Mathaus,” the name on his marriage record. Mathew and Christoph, who was six years older, had grown up in the same small town. In 1866, at the young age of 18, Matthew traveled to the Wabash Valley. He was likely a source of information about Clark County, Illinois, for the village of Gündelbach.

The third Clark County Courthouse, built in Marshall in 1839
 and torn down in 1887, was the site of the 1863 military arrest
 of Judge Charles H. Constable during the Civil War. (Historical
 Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Clark County, 1907.)

Mathew arrived just one year after the end of the Civil War, and ill feelings were undoubtedly still present. Clark County had sent over one-tenth of its population, 1,560 men, to serve with the Union forces. Illinois had become a free state with the adoption of the Constitution of 1848. The final decision was made only after a prolonged struggle even though there had been few slaves in the state — only 331 in 1840. Although a free state, Illinois loyalties had been split. In 1863 in Marshall a group of Clark County Copperheads opposing the War, tried to safeguard soldiers deserting from the Union Army. In March of that year, an Indiana army detail arrested several of the deserters. A local judge, Charles H. Constable, freed the fugitives and ordered two Union sergeants arrested on kidnapping charges. Under the command of Col. Henry B. Carrington, 250 soldiers arrived by special train from Indianapolis, surrounded the courthouse, freed the two sergeants, and arrested Judge Constable.

Mathew Abel first worked as a farmhand in Clark County before moving to Terre Haute, where he met Rebecca Mayer. The two were wedded on 7 Nov 1875 in Clark County, but lived in Terre Haute for two years before moving back to Clark. where he and Rebecca farmed in Wabash Twp near Zion church.

In 1881, Mathew’s younger brother Gottlieb, who had also been born in Gündelbach (on 29 Jun 1851) left Germany to join his brother in Clark County. Gottlieb arrived on the on the W. A. Scholten. Accompanying Gottlieb on his trip was Christoph Imle and his family.

Does this prove that the Abels induced the Imles to come to Clark County? No. But it certainly makes it likely.

The Abel family and their descendants generally attended Zion Church, but some were members of Grand Turn, the Imle church. Mathew died 17 Jan 1931, after losing both his first and second wives. Gottlieb died 2 Feb 1933 and rests with his wife, Wilhelmina (“Minnie”), in Marshall Cemetery.

Clark County

U.S. Census Bureau

It was to Illinois that Christoph and his family headed when they landed in 1881, specifically to Clark County, on the east side of the state, just across the Wabash River from Terre Haute, Indiana. Rail travel was the only practical transportation, and at the time the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and St. Louis Railroad, the “Panhandle Route,“ ran all the way from New York to St. Louis, passing through Terre Haute and Marshall.

The Wabash had been a major steamboat and flatboat route. Vessels went to the Ohio River and then the Mississippi to reach New Orleans. In the middle 1800s, the riverside Clark County towns of Darwin and York had thrived, with a slaughterhouse in each. In the fall and winter hogs were slaughtered and the meat and lard was shipped downriver by flatboat. Other freight was corn, flour, poultry, hoop poles, lumber, and whisky.

First Clark County Courthouse, Aurora. (Historical
Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Clark County, 1907.)

The county courthouse, first established in the now-defunct village of Aurora, had been moved in 1823 to Darwin, named after the English polymath Erasmus Darwin (though some wrongly ascribe the name’s source to Erasmus’s nephew, Charles). In 1839, a second move had taken the seat to Marshall, at the time a collection of a dozen houses on the great Cumberland road, now the National Road, sixteen miles west of Terre-Haute, and nine miles northwest of Darwin. The Cumberland Road was the primary reason for moving the county seat.

Clark County, Union Atlas Co., Chicago. 1876. (David Rumsey Map Collection.)

Between 1828 and 1832 Clark County had only three post office: Bachelorsville; Clark Courthouse (at Darwin), and Morton’s Store, and an amazingly small number of towns. By 1856 the number of post offices had grown to fifteen and Marshall was now included. In 1862, the list of Clark County post offices was not longer, but included some more familiar names with the addition of Clark Center and York. By 1893, Clark County boasted 27 post offices, many of them with now unfamiliar names — Allright, Beltz, Cleone, Cohn, Moonshine, Neadmore, State Line, Tom. The Imle post office was at Ernst.

Christoph Frederick and Anna Maria Imle, Germany

Born in Gündelbach, on 30 Sep 1842, Christoph was one of ten known children (Magdalene Friederike, Jane, Christina, Christoph, Frederike Catherine, John Karl, Maria Beata, Jakob Christ, and two unnamed infants) of Christoph and Maria Beata (Sommer) Imle. Probably named “Christoph Friedrich,” he eventually dropped the “Christoph” and in America changed “Friedrich” to “Frederich” and then to “Frederick,” but usually going by “Fred” or “Fred Sr.” (to distinguish him from his son Fred). In this book, the name “Christoph” is often used to avoid ambiguities.

On 17 May 1869, in Weissach, a town 16 miles south of Gündelbach, Christoph wedded Anna Maria Reichert (often called “Marie” or “Mary” in the U.S.). Born in Weissach, Maria had six known siblings—Christiana (chr 4 Oct 1838), Christina Magdalena (chr 31 Mar 1841), Johann Friederich (chr 2 Feb 1845), Johann Adam (b 21 Nov 1851), Johann Martin (b 2 Jul 1854), and Abraham (chr 28 Oct 1855), all born in Weissach—children of Johann Martin and Christiana (Hahn) Reichert. Johann Martin is named as a surviving sibling in Maria’s obituary.

Over the years, Maria has been given a variety of birthdates. Two different, relatively reliable, secondary sources, the Imle Family Tree and a Family Group Sheet for Cristoph Frederick and Maria Imle, both prepared by close relatives, give Anna Maria's birth date as 12 Nov 1849, as does Maria’s obituary. But these do not agree with her cemetery marker’s birth year of 1848. A letter dated 1 Apr 1980 from officials at the City of Vaihingen an der Enz in Germany concerning the family’s immigration gives a birthdate of 30 Sep 1848, and the 1900 U.S. census gives April 1848. The last source is particularly significant since Maria’s birthdate was presumably recorded by the census taker in her presence and birthdates for all other family members in the 1900 census agree with other records. But the most likely birthdate is none of these. Most reliable is 12 Nov 1848, the date given in a transcription of an official Weissach birth and christening record.

Vineyards of Gündelbach (2011).

In Gündelbach. Christoph and Maria resided in a still-standing house, lived on the proceeds from a 12-acre vineyard, and parented five children. And in that town they made a momentous decision, to go to America to avoid required service by their sons in the German military. It is said that Christoph sold his 12 acres to pay for the trip, traveled to Rotterdam with his wife and five children, and on 23 Mar 1881 started across the Atlantic for America.

A Trip to Gündelbach

The following letter was written by Ernest Imle on 28 September 1964 following a trip that he had made to Gündelbach, Germany. The letter, originally handwritten, was apparently never sent. It was finally typed up in September 1992, 28 years after it was written.

     September 28, 1964

Dear All:

     On Sunday Sept. 13, 1964 I flew from Rome to Stuttgart, Germany, arriving about 3:30 p.m. I had telephoned Mrs. G. G. Heitland from Zurich, Switzerland about noon that day and arranged to meet her and Dr. Heitland at my hotel in Stuttgart. The Heitlands are very distant relatives. Her mother was an Imle but I don’t know how close she was to Grandpa Imle’s branch of the family. Dr. Heitland is a well-to-do dentist in Ludwigsburg, a suburb of Stuttgart. It was withj these same Heitlands that Uncle Gottlob and Aunt Clara Imle in 1954 and later Uncle Gottlob and Charlotte Imle in 1962 (Edward Imle’s daughter) visited. Both Dr. and Mrs. Heitland speak good English.

     They met me at the beautiful “Hotel am Schlossgarten” for tea and then offered to drive me to Gundelbach, about 20 kilometers away. On arrival in Gundelbach we went first to the old church and went inside. It is not much changed over the years and is believed to be quite old. There on the front wall hangs the large painting given to the church by Grandpa Imle (in 1908 I believe) at the time of his last visit there. The painting is about 5 x 8 feet in size with a heavy oak frame. It carries a brass plaque reading (approximately), “Donated by Frederick Imle in memory of the Imle Family, Clark county, Illinois USA.” The picture hung too high for me to read the plaque exactly without a step ladder! A small facsimile of this oil painting hands on the wall of Uncle Will Imle’s front parlor. It was sent to Grandpa after the painting was completed. He left the money with the church to have this painting made. I don’t know who the artist was. The pastor was not at the church at that hour.

     Then we went to the old Imle residence a few doors away. There still lives Eugen Schillinger, grandson of Jacob Schillinger who bought the house in 1881 from the Imles. Eugen is about 30 more or less. His father Karl, age 65, and his mother both live nearby and came over. Karl says he remembers Grandpa’s last visit very well (but he would have been only 8 years old or so at that time if it was in 1908). We looked over the place in some detail. The barn and barnyard are attached at the back. What had been a garden area is now a paved parking yard for tools, etc. Otherwise the barn itself is little changed. Stone and timber construction and very solid looking.

     The house has been remodeled in recent years inside, but exterior, except for front steps which have been moved to a rear entrance off the parking lot, is little changed. The second story and attic are the same exactly as they were. We sat and drank Gundelbach wine in the dining room, which had been the old bedroom. Much talk went on and not speaking German, I could get but little of it. Mrs. Heitland translated but she had great difficulty understanding all the dialect still being used in that village to this day. They had many questions about the family and life in the USA. The Imles were well thought of according to Karl Schillinger. He seemed to doubt the wisdom of their having moved away leaving a good house, and land, etc.!

     I asked about the land. He took us to see the old wine garden, “Wineberg,” as they call them there. It is one of the best in that valley, way up the hillside on a steep slope. It would only be walked to in those days — a good mile and a half, most of it uphill, but we drove to it easily. The other land they had owned was not known to Schillinger but he says the Wineberg is still known as the Imle Wineberg. Grapes and fine wine are an important crop there as for ages past. They gave me two bottles which I brought home with me.

     The village, farms and the entire valley are most beautiful. I recommend you visit them before change overtakes that area. A little new building is going on now and some consolidation of land holdings. Most houses date to the sixteen hundreds and seventeen hundreds, some older. Cobble stone narrow streets lined with old horse chestnut trees. Manure pits and piles at each house giving a fine, rank odor at times, and the same old pumps and drain tanks to collect the liquid manure which Dad used to describe. Flocks of geese moving about and pens of family size chicken flocks. These things are long gone in the USA.

     Roads are good but narrow, autos are everywhere but people walk and bicycle a lot on special paths provided all over the countryside. Children and adults were all very well dressed in Gundelbach and in fact at least as well as in any U.S. village and far better than in some.

     The Heitlands then drove me after dark to their place, a very nice house indeed, where I met one of their sons age 17. He is champion tennis player of Stuttgart and had just returned from a three-week exchange student visit to England where he practiced his English, which is very good. Their older son was not at home. I then took them all out to eat supper after which they took me to the Hotel and I had to leave Stuttgart the next morning for Paris. Thus, I saw and did a lot in a very few house.

     It would be nice to spend a vacation in that area and look around more.

     Mrs. Heitland told me of the church window about which Uncle Gottlob had written several of us. It is at the town of Heilbronn which I didn’t have time to visit. The town and church were damaged in the war. They have the plan as it was and are trying to rebuild but as yet haven’ completed the job so the window is not yet replaced. The collected funds are still in the church’s bank account for this purpose. It seems the Imle family in Heilbronn at one time was of some prominence and their hold home had historic significance. That is the reason they want to rebuild this home, along with others, to keep the town as it was. the [sic] church is to be restored and along with it, the old Imle window, to which several of us contributed funds in the past.

     Even though it was late p.m. by the time I reached Gundelbach, I took pictures of the house, barn, church, etc. Unfortunately, in London I lost my camera on a train with that roll inside of it! Unless it is turned in I’ll not have these pictures to show you.

Ernest P. Imle

P.S. Oct. 28, ’64 Surprisingly enough, I have received notice that my camera has been found and turned in to the London subway Lost and Found. In due time I may get it and will, I hope, have the pictures after all.

I had hoped to have this scribbling typed up but have not had the chance. Thus I’ll send it on as is and when returned to me I’ll have it typed for others to read.

I did not have time to go to Adelsheim to see Aunt Lena’s brother. It was not possible in the few hours I had. Maybe next time!

The Vineyards of Gündelbach (R. E. Tapscott, 2011).

Gündelbach

Laurentiuskirche (2011).

Around 1700 Endriss Imlin’s great great grandson Tobias Imle moved from Horrheim to Gündelbach, which became the home town of most of Tobias’s known descendants, until his great great great grandson, Christoph traveled to America. Christoph’s home still stands in Gundelbach.

Until the end of WW II, Gündelbach consisted of only a few houses between two parallel roads. Even today the population is only about 1300. The hamlet is mentioned for the first time in 1120 AD and in the earliest documents is called “Ginterbach,”

Christoph Frederick Imle house, Gundelbach
(c1967, courtesy of George Irwin).

Built in the 15^th century the local protestant church, Laurentiuskirche, is named after Saint Laurentius, an early Christian martyr, shown in the coat of arms for the town. The church lies just down the street from the Imle house.

Horrheim

St. Clemenskirche (2011).

Horrheim, 1684 (Forstlagerbüchern, Andreas Kieser).

First mentioned in a 771 AD book now at the Lorsch Abbey in Hesse, Horrheim today (2015) has a population of 2568. The town was the home of the earliest known Imle patriarch—Endriss Imlin (born 1558) and three generations of his descendants. Horrheim’s protestant Church of St. Clemens dates from well before Endriss’s time. The octagonal tower dates from the thirteenth century with fourteenth-century murals and is prominent in a 1684 print of Horrheim by Andreas Kieser.

Horrheim and Gündelbach

In Germany, the Imles lived in the neighboring hamlets of Horrheim and Gündelbach, two old wine producing villages, three miles apart and located halfway between Stuttgart and Karlsruhe near the eastern border of the old state of Württemberg.

Gündelbach and vinyards (2011).